Downey attorney pleads guilty to illegally selling narcotic painkiller – Whittier Daily News

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles-area attorney pleaded guilty Monday to a drug distribution charge for illegally selling more than 1,000 oxycodone pills after offering the narcotic painkiller for sale on Craigslist.

Jackie Ferrari, 36, a resident of Downey, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count of illegally distributing oxycodone, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Ferrari sold a law enforcement source 50 oxycodone pills for $1,200 during a transaction on Jan. 10, court records show. She was arrested eight days later after agreeing to sell the source another 180 pills for $4,100.

The investigation into Ferrari began after a 22-year-old woman died in August 2018 of a fentanyl overdose, and text messages on the victim’s phone initially indicated that she may have purchased the narcotics from a drug trafficker associated with Ferrari, prosecutors said.

While investigators did not link Ferrari to that overdose death, they opened an investigation “based on evidence … that she is a large-scale trafficker in opiates via the website Craigslist” and information developed by two local police departments tying Ferrari to drug trafficking activities in late 2017, according to an affidavit filed in this case.

The affidavit also notes that records obtained from Craigslist pursuant to a subpoena demonstrate Ferrari’s “long history of posting advertisements for … the sale of narcotics” using coded names such as “roxy dolls” (referring to Roxicodone, a short-acting version of oxycodone), “Chinese White Rice” (a reference to “China white” or powdered heroin, which is often mixed with fentanyl) and “Black Rice” (black tar heroin), according to federal prosecutors.